[gemini9]

Hey all. Took my first downhill single track ride today and it was pretty rough. (Very much different from cruising along the fire trails) Went down the trail once, and crashed. Nothing hurt but my ego. Went down twice, crashed. Again, the ego was damaged. Along with a scraped arm, scraped leg, bruised rib, busted lip, busted sunglasses...... and a busted fork.

When I hit, the whole cap/cartridge busted out of the top of the fork where I lock/unlock it. It was completely shoved out the top and some oil leaked out. I ended up taking it to the bike maintenance guy and he put the plastic cartridge thing back in for a small fee and sent me on my way. He said the fork seems to be functional, but wasn't positive whether or not it needed some fluid or not. (He didn't have any hydrolic fluid) He said he didn't know how this particular fork was built, that he thought it may have just been some lubricating oil and not hydrolic fluid, but wasn't exactly sure.

SO, I'm trying to figure out if this fork is safe to be riding on or if I should get it replaced/repaired. The only thing the maintenance guy could really do, was put the cartridge thing back in.

It seems functional. The rebound seems ok.... I'm wondering if I stripped out any threads. How in the world did that manage to unscrew and pop out of the top of the strut anyway?

 

[Kiwiplague]

Are the threads damaged? If so, replace that top cap assembly, as the same thing will happen again. Was your fork locked out? Someone else on the forums recently did something similar by leaving his fork locked out.
The other possible reason is that the top cap was loose, and the vibrations from riding have un-threaded it while you were riding.

 

[arkon11]

Gemini9, I know this may be a bit off topic, but if you want, I have a almost new Rock Shox Dart 3 fork I'll send to you for 50 bucks. It'll probably cost like 25 to ship, so I'll sell it to you for 50 straight. Let me know if you're interested.

 

[gemini9]

The maintenance guy didn't say anything about damaged threads. The fork is usually left unlocked, but I did take a little tumble before that happened so it's possible it turned to lock position during the first fall.

The Dart 3 you offered, I'll let you know. I guess it all depends on how my fork holds up now that it's been blown out like that.